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Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that his department would undertake
"token mapping", or cataloging the types and uses of digital
currency owned within the country, as a first step to
identifying which cryptocurrency assets to regulate, and how.
Australia would be the first country in the world to conduct
such an exercise, he added in a statement.
"With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto
assets, to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen
plastered all over big sporting events, we need to make sure
customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and
protected," Chalmers said.
Australia has wrestled for years with the question of how to
regulate cryptocurrency - money that is regulated by
decentralised computer networks, rather than central banks.
Calls for intervention have increased since 2020 when COVID-19
stimulus payments and home working prompted a surge in the
sector's popularity.
Last year, a Senate inquiry under the previous conservative
government recommended wide-ranging regulations to protect
cryptocurrency owners, but that administration lost an election
this May before any new laws were put in place.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has also
said it wants the sector regulated, citing its research that
found 44% of retail investors held cryptocurrency in late 2021.
Chalmers, the treasurer, did not specify any planned regulations
on Monday, but said the token mapping exercise would be "the
first step in a reform agenda".
(Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Jamie Freed)
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